Citymapper vs Google Maps: which app to use in which city

In the Citymapper vs Google Maps question, Citymapper is the better public transport app inside the cities it supports, and Google Maps is the better all-round app everywhere else. If you live in or visit a big covered city like London or Paris, use Citymapper for buses, trains and the metro. Keep Google Maps for driving, finding places, offline maps and any town Citymapper does not cover.

Most travellers end up installing both, and drivers should add Waze too. The rest of this guide explains where each app pulls ahead and which one to open first in which city.

The quick verdict

• Pick Citymapper if you mostly ride public transport in a large city it supports and want live departures, disruption alerts and tips like which carriage to board.
• Pick Google Maps if you travel widely, drive, visit small towns, or want reviews, opening hours and offline maps in the same app.
• Use both if you are a city traveller. Citymapper plans the transit leg, and Google Maps covers everything around it.
• Drivers can skip Citymapper entirely, because it has no driving directions.

A note on how we got here: this comparison draws on Citymapper's own announcements and store listings, plus several recent hands-on reviews, most of them London-based. Transit apps behave differently from city to city, so treat the city table below as a starting point and check both apps on your first day.

Citymapper vs Google Maps at a glance

	Citymapper	Google Maps
Price	Free with ads; optional CLUB subscription removes them	Free
Platforms	iPhone and Android	iPhone and Android
Coverage	Supported cities only (the App Store listing says 400+)	Worldwide
Live transit	Live departures, Smart Alerts, disruption rerouting, carriage tips	Live departures where agencies share data
Mixed-mode routes	Transit plus bike hire, e-scooters, cabs and rideshare	Mostly transit, walking, cycling, driving and some ride options
Sort routes by price	Yes	Not a core feature
Driving directions	No	Yes
Place search and reviews	Basic	Extensive
Offline maps	Unconfirmed; live features need data	Yes, downloadable areas
Step-free routes	Yes, in a growing number of regions	Yes, wheelchair-accessible transit option

Both apps sit in our Navigation category, alongside other tools for getting around.

Coverage: the deciding factor

Coverage is the first thing to check, because it settles the question before features do. Citymapper builds its routes on detailed local transit data, so it only works in cities where it has that data. In a small town or an unsupported city, you will see little or nothing useful.

Google Maps has no such limit. It works almost anywhere with a road network, and it shows public transport in a very large number of places, even when the data is less detailed.

The exact size of Citymapper's list is unclear. The UK App Store listing advertises 400+ cities. One recent review cites 650+ cities, but that figure appears to describe the wider transit platform of Via, the company that bought Citymapper in March 2023, rather than the consumer app. Before a trip, search for your destination inside Citymapper to confirm it is supported.

The Arrived guide to Citymapper lists major hubs such as London, New York, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Madrid and San Francisco, plus smaller cities across Europe, North America and beyond.

Live transit and disruptions

This is where Citymapper earns its reputation. Reviewers who have used both in London consistently say Citymapper handles live departures, line disruptions and carriage positioning better than Google Maps.

The interesting part is that both apps draw on the same Transport for London data feeds. The difference lies in presentation and speed. Citymapper surfaces the information you need at the moment you need it, rather than burying it a few taps deep.

What Citymapper does on a live trip

• Smart Alerts send real-time updates about your journey once you start a trip, such as a delay on your line.
• Rerouting suggests alternatives when a line goes down, instead of leaving you to work it out.
• Boarding tips tell you which part of the train to stand in so you end up near your exit or interchange.
• Lock Screen navigation and voice instructions were once paid extras, but Citymapper made them free for everyone in 2023.

Google Maps does show live departure times and service alerts where transit agencies supply them. It is perfectly usable for a simple metro ride. It just offers less hand-holding when things go wrong mid-journey.

Mixed routes, rideshare and sorting by price

Citymapper treats a city as one network rather than a set of separate modes. According to its App Store listing, it plans trips across bus, tube, train, tram, ferry, cabs, rideshare, carshare, bike hire, e-scooters and walking.

That matters when the fastest option is, say, a bike-share ride to a station and then a train. You can also rank routes by speed or by price, which is handy when you are watching a travel budget.

Late at night in London, Citymapper can show a live price comparison for Uber, Bolt and a local minicab on the same screen as the night bus. Google Maps shows some ride options, but it does not put cost comparison at the centre of route planning the way Citymapper does.

Walking, cycling and step-free routes

On foot and on a bike, Google Maps has the edge. A recent London comparison from Acolyte Living found Google's walking directions, street-level guidance and cycling routes more detailed and more confident than Citymapper's.

That fits Google's strengths. It has years of Street View imagery and street-level data to draw on, which helps when you are trying to find the right side street or entrance.

Accessibility

Both apps offer step-free planning, but the coverage differs.

• Citymapper added wheelchair-accessible routes and said in 2023 that they were available in 20 regions, with more planned.
• Google Maps has a wheelchair-accessible option for transit directions, and it applies wherever the underlying data supports it.

If you rely on step-free routes, check both apps for your specific city. Lift outages are exactly the kind of live detail that varies by city and data source.

Driving: Citymapper is out, so it is Google Maps or Waze

Citymapper does not give driving directions at all. It is built for public transport, walking and cycling, so drivers need something else.

Google Maps is the obvious default. It offers turn-by-turn driving, live traffic and rerouting, and it can download maps for offline driving.

Waze is the other strong choice, and it is free on iPhone and Android. It leans on reports from other drivers for live traffic and hazard alerts, then reroutes you automatically around jams. Waze is owned by Google, but it feels quite different: more focused on the commute, less on exploring.

A simple rule:

• Use Google Maps for road trips, unfamiliar regions and when you want to stop at places along the way.
• Use Waze for regular driving in busy traffic where live hazard and jam reports save you time.

Place search, reviews and trip planning

Google Maps wins this easily. Citymapper is a directions app. It will get you to an address, but it will not tell you whether the restaurant there is any good.

Google Maps gives you reviews, photos, opening hours, busy times and saved lists in one place. That makes it the better tool for planning a day out, not just getting there.

A practical travel setup is to research and save places in Google Maps, then copy the destination into Citymapper for the transit leg. For meeting someone at an exact spot, such as a park entrance or a station exit, what3words can pinpoint a roughly 3 m square.

Offline use

Google Maps lets you download areas in advance and then search and navigate inside them without a connection. This is the main reason to keep it on your phone in places where data is patchy or expensive.

We could not confirm the current extent of Citymapper's offline features from an official page. In any case, its strengths are live data, alerts and rerouting, and those need a connection by nature. Plan to have mobile data or a local eSIM if Citymapper is your main transit app.

For travel abroad, it is also worth downloading an offline language pack in Google Translate before you land. Our roundup of the 5 best utility apps for iPhone and Android covers a few more tools worth having.

Cost: both free, with one optional subscription

Google Maps is free with no subscription.

Citymapper is also free, but it shows ads. Its CLUB subscription removes them. The UK App Store lists Citymapper CLUB at £1.49 and £9.99, and CLUB+ at £99.99. US prices captured in August 2024 were $1.49 a month or $9.99 a year for CLUB, and $99.99 a year for CLUB+. Check the store listing before subscribing, as these may have changed.

The key point is that you no longer need to pay for core features. In 2023 Citymapper announced that more routes, voice instructions and Lock Screen navigation had moved from CLUB to the free app. The paid tier is now mainly about going ad-free.

Which app in which city

This table is for travellers deciding what to open first. It is based on Citymapper's published coverage and the hands-on reviews above, not on our own timed route tests.

Where you are	Open first	Why
London	Citymapper	Reviewers rate its disruption handling, live departures and carriage tips above Google's
New York, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, San Francisco	Citymapper, with Google Maps as a cross-check	Supported cities; compare both on your first ride
Tokyo	Try both	Supported by Citymapper, but check which presents local rail more clearly for you
Smaller cities and towns	Google Maps	Citymapper may show little or nothing
Rural areas and road trips	Google Maps or Waze	Driving, wide coverage and offline maps
Anywhere with poor signal	Google Maps (offline area downloaded)	Works without a connection
Several cities in one trip	Both	Citymapper where supported, Google Maps everywhere else

If Citymapper does not cover a city you are visiting, a transit app such as Moovit is worth a look, and Apple Maps is a reasonable fallback on iPhone. More travel tools are in our Travel category.

Which should you choose?

City commuters in a supported city. Make Citymapper your daily transit app. Smart Alerts, rerouting and boarding tips save real time on a regular commute. Keep Google Maps for weekends and errands.

Tourists visiting one big city. Install both. Use Google Maps to find and save places, and Citymapper to get between them by bus, metro or bike share.

Travellers moving between several cities or countries. Google Maps is the backbone because it works everywhere and offline. Add Citymapper for the stops it covers.

Drivers. Skip Citymapper. Use Google Maps for unfamiliar routes and road trips, or Waze for daily driving where live traffic reports matter most.

Step-free travellers. Check both apps for each city, since accessible routing depends on local data. Use whichever shows lift and station access more clearly for you.

Budget-conscious riders. Citymapper's option to sort routes by price, and its rideshare comparisons, make it useful for keeping costs down. You do not need CLUB for that.